Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

But that is only if that additional information is available or can be collated within the additional time. We know that one of the reasons there is a six-month time period for further information requests is that sometimes they are surveys of a seasonal nature or things where the information is not necessarily available. All I want to be very clear about - I think the Minister is saying this is the case - is that if the local authority seeks the agreement for extension of, let us say, eight weeks, four weeks or whatever and the applicant approves, and during that period an issue arises for the planning authority where it says, "Actually, we need some additional information", it can request that information. If, however, that information is not available - for all sorts of reasons which we know about - within the eight weeks, the decision will still have to be made to refuse or grant, even though that information will not be provided. That is the issue here.